There are many days in the winter when the heat of the Sun makes itself felt a great deal more than it does in France. The first day that I saw our river frozen, I was astonished, because it was very mild weather; and, in seeking a reason for it, this came to my mind. A river always freezes first along its banks; and, when the tide rises, it loosens this ice and carries it higher up. Now, not far from us there is a waterfall or some rocks, which prevent the tidal ice from passing beyond them. This ice being thus massed and pressed together in the river, which is in the midst of so great a wood that the snow and cold are easily preserved, it becomes consolidated; and thousands and thousands of blocks of ice are frozen into one mass which goes on increasing every day, [108] making a great bridge over the whole river. Lombardy is not far from the Alps, the summits of which are always white with snow, and yet I do not know that Europe has a more agreeable and more fertile valley than that country. I would say the same of the place in which we live, if it were cleared and cultivated. This is my opinion touching this country; if I am mistaken, it is not strange, as that happens to me often; everything depends upon clearing the land. But oh, my God! What labor there will be in clearing a forest encumbered with fallen trees, I might well say, since the deluge. Le 23. du mesme mois d'Auril, nous veismes partir les glaces, cela est effroyable: on m'a dit qu'on en auoit veu passer devãt le fort lõgues d'vne demie lieuë; ce sont des ances d'eau glacée que la marée de la grãde riuiere va détachant. Sur nostre [109] petite riuiere les glaces n'y sõt pas si affreuses, & neantmoins ie leur ay veu emporter de gros morceaux de terre, arracher des souches, briser quelques arbres qu'elles entouroiẽt. On en voit marcher de tous droits dessus ces glaces au beau milieu de la riuiere, qui en vne seule marée paroist aussi belle & aussi claire, comme si elle n'auoit point esté glacée. On the 23rd of the same month of April we saw the ice float away; it is a frightful spectacle. I was told that pieces half a league long were seen passing before the fort. These are the banks of frozen water which the current of the great river goes on loosening. Upon our [109] little river the ice is not so alarming; nevertheless I have seen it carry away large pieces of earth, tear up stumps, and crush the trees which it had enclosed. You can see them [the trees] moving erect on these pieces of ice, in the very middle of the river, which in a single tide appears as beautiful and as clear as if it had never been frozen.